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Saturday, 20 May 2017

Video: Car plowing down pedestrians on sidewalk in Times Square Graphic Content

Saturday, 20 May 2017 | MYT 12:58 AM

NYC car crash: Driver faces second degree murder charge

Richard Rojas who plowed his car through the bustling heart of Times Square in New York City on May 18 faces one count of murder in the second degree, aggravated vehicular homicide and multiple counts of attempted murder.

In court, prosecutors said Rojas told police that he “wanted to kill them.” He didn’t enter a plea and is due back in court next week.

According to the criminal complaint, police observed that Rojas “had glassy eyes, slurred speech and was unsteady.” Rojas also allegedly told an officer, “I smoked marijuana. I laced the marijuana with PCP,” according to the complaint.

Richard Rojas appears at his araignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday, May 19, 2017. Rojas is charged with driving into pedestrians in Times Square, killing one and injuring at least 22 others. (pool photo credit: Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)

“There’s preliminary tests that were done,” said William Aubry, NYPD’s chief of Manhattan South detectives. “They confirm what his statements were, and there’s also a more thorough exam that has to be done with the medical examiner, and that’s the blood results. Those are the results we’re waiting for,”

According to sources, Rojas’ statements were rambling, saying he’d been hearing voices and talked about the last day on Earth, 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reported.

Police said Rojas sped his car down Seventh Avenue around noon Thursday before making a sharp U-turn and jumping the curb at 42nd Street, where the first person was hit.

“He left his house at 10:30 yesterday morning, and at 11:54, he came here to Times Square,” Aubry said. “There were no incidents in between. That goes to his state of his mind. He waited for those cars to pass, and he accelerated, striking down these pedestrians. That goes to his state of mind.”

Aubry said as Rojas hit between 42nd and 43rd streets, he struck 18-year-old Alyssa Elsman from Michigan, killing her.

“He continues on from 42nd to 43rd, accelerating. He continues onto 44th, 45th, he actually goes underneath a scaffold,” Aubry said. “Parts of his car, the side-view mirror, license plates are falling off as he’s striking these pedestrians. People are being dragged. They’re on top of the car.”

The vehicle eventually stopped on top of a metal barrier before bursting into flames.

“I saw the flames coming out underneath, and someone was being pulled from underneath the car,” a witness said.

Duane Jackson, a street vendor, was at his stand just feet away from where Rojas’ car landed.

“The metal pylons were a great savior,” he told CBS2’s Janelle Burrell. “Thank God they put the pylons there about five months ago. I didn’t think they would be sturdy enough to take the impact of a car, and they were.”

The concrete barriers and metal stanchions were installed just in the past few months as part of a safety overhaul for the city, a response to terrorism around the world, CBS2’s Jessica Layton reported.

“Many more people would have been killed or seriously injured if it wasn’t for security measures put in place on 45th Street,” Aubry said.

More than 20 people were injured in the crash. At least eight people were still in the hospital Friday afternoon — four in critical condition, including a 38-year-old woman from Canada.

Elsman’s 13-year-old sister, Evan, is being treated at Cornell Hospital for a collapsed lung and broken pelvis, police said.

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Rojas was knocked to the ground by a nearby restaurant bouncer, who with others helped hold him until police took him away.

City leaders Thursday reassured concerned tourists and New Yorkers that the incident does not appear to be an act of terror.

“No indication this is terrorism,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

In the Bronx, police stood outside the apartment Rojas shares with his mother Friday while others collected evidence inside.

Rojas’ childhood friend says he seemed to become emotionally disturbed after a stint in the Navy from 2011 to 2014.